


The Love of My Life

by katelai



Category: Legacies (TV 2018), The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M, I'm still sad about Jo, Jolaric, Memories, Vignette
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-12
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:13:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24145669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katelai/pseuds/katelai
Summary: Vignette series set in the current Legacies timeline covering times when Ric reminisces about the love of his life, Jo Laughlin.
Relationships: Alaric Saltzman & Josie Saltzman, Alaric Saltzman & Lizzie Saltzman, Josette "Jo" Laughlin/Alaric Saltzman
Kudos: 4





	1. 1x06 - Mombie Dearest

**Author's Note:**

> I am new to this fandom - I’ve seen all of TVD and am only one season into Legacies. I mostly dove into the series to see 1x06, after being devastated by Jo’s death. Currently, I’m working through The Originals and plan to go back to Legacies when I’m done. However, I’m still so upset over Jo and Alaric’s tragic story that I had to write to get my emotions out. I hope you like my little Jolaric-centric vignettes. 
> 
> This vignette is set right after Josie and Lizzie siphon Jo. ;_;

Their crying had quieted. Sitting there on Lizzie’s bed with her sister and father, Josie was struck with a sudden longing for a woman she’d only spent minutes with. Being able to reconcile the real woman behind the scattered photographs and scant stories had her head spinning.

Their father rarely spoke of their other mother, Jo. Whenever he did he always looked heartbroken, because of this Lizzie and Josie hadn’t the heart to ask more about their biological mother. However, having known her now, Josie was overtaken with a sudden need to know more about her. 

“Daddy,” she said quietly. Sadly. “You never talk about Jo.” Her voice broke on her mother’s name and her eyes burned with new tears. Lizzie sighed sadly beside her.

“You’d think it’d be easier after sixteen years,” her father responded softly, reaching over Lizzie to squeeze her knee. 

“Tell us about how you met… at the college party?” 

Alaric sighed and wiped the drying tears from his face. He laughed sadly and smiled. “She tried to flirt with me and I had no game.  _ God _ she was beautiful.”

Josie tried to smile at him, trying to picture her awkward father at a college party.

“Elena set us up,” he explained, clearing his throat. “Which completely failed because I blew Jo off right after meeting her.”

Alaric seemed happier all of a sudden and laughed, surprising both Lizzie and Josie. 

“After you told her you were a germaphobe,” Josie added, trying to smile. “Why exactly?”

“Because she wanted my flask!” Ric responded obstinately, smiling widely. At that Lizzie and Josie wore genuine smiles. “Besides, she told me I was the vegetarian of cool people.”

Both girls laughed. 

“What happened after you blew her off?” Lizzie cut in, interested now.

“She made my head spin every time I ran into her,” Alaric admitted ruefully. “A few days later I brought Jeremy to the hospital where she worked, he was hungo-- _ sick _ ... And who do I run into, but Jo. Her blue eyes were glowing in the sunlight that day. It was to follow what she was saying…”

Ric shook his head, the smile still on his face. He then looked up at the ceiling and took a moment to gather his thoughts. 

“She said something along the lines of ‘when a successful sexy doctor is flirting with you, give her your undivided attention.’” 

Lizzie laughed. “That’s an impressive memory for something that happened sixteen years ago,” she said. Josie found herself smiling at her sister.

“Well,” their father responded. “Jo was a memorable woman.” His voice softened at the mention of Jo.

Josie sensed that he was near tears again, the mood in the room had changed so quickly. 

“What happened next?” Josie asked, lightening her voice in the hopes that it would cheer her father up.

Alaric sighed and folded his arms. “Elena set us up again,” he told them, grinning again from the memory. “At a haunted corn maze. Another idiotic college party.”

Before continuing, Alaric moved to lean his back on the headboard of Lizze’s bed. “Your mom… Jo had gotten there before me and spent some time wandering the maze with the kids dressed as zombies and witches. When I finally ran into her some college girl in a bloody nightgown had jumped out at her and made her scream.”

Josie smiled at her father, who was grinning. She could tell from the way his eyes looked off into the distance that he was somewhere else in his mind.

“She called me professor bourbon when she saw me laughing at her, then told me how she needed a drink. I gave her my flask and she said she thought I was a germaphobe. We had a nice stroll for a few minutes until a truck came barreling through the corn maze.”

“What?” Lizzie asked, looking at her father. “A truck?”

“A truck,” her father told her. “And it nearly hit Jo until I very heroically pulled her out of its path.”

“What was the truck doing there?” Lizzie asked, incredulous. 

“That’s a whole other story, kiddo.”

“Let’s get back to Jo!” Josie cut in. “Was she okay? Were you?”

“I was fine, but Jo was bleeding from a gash in her arm. I told you girls that she was an enlisted Army doctor--she didn’t think twice about herself. She wrapped a scarf around her arm and immediately started spitting out orders.”

“Was she always like that?” Josie asked. “A leader?”

Alaric focused on Josie and smiled sadly. “She was, she ran her department in the Whitmore emergency room. When she talked, people listened. It was really hot.”

“Dad!” Lizzie interjected, rolling her eyes.

Ric laughed and rubbed his chest. “That truck must have hit a dozen kids. I was ready to faint from seeing all the blood and gore, hardly able to keep up. Jo was speaking a mile a minute, tending to one kid with a broken leg while helping someone else across the maze on a cell phone.”

Josie’s father took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “When we got to the hospital later that evening, I tried to let her down gently.”

“What?” Josie asked. “From everything you’ve said, you really liked her!”

“I did,  _ a lot _ ,” her father explained. “But I was afraid I’d hurt her if I kept seeing her. I told her I thought she was amazing, brilliant, beautiful… but that the night was a disaster, that I was boring and drank too much. I told her to run for the hills.”

“Jeez dad,” Lizzie cut in. “Way to kill a mood.”

“What did she say?” Josie asked.

Ric smiled. “She said I was right, the night  _ was _ a disaster, that I definitely drank too much, that wasn't even a little boring… and then she kissed me.”

Josie laughed, her eyes shining at the image in her head. “I like her.”

Ric’s eyes glittered. “Me too.”

\--

After sitting together in silence for some time, Ric rose from Lizzie’s bed. 

“Okay, it’s late, you’ve got class in the morning. Get into bed, you two.”

Lizzie rolled her eyes. “We’ve been setting our own bedtime since the 9th grade.”

“I’m gonna tuck you both in,” Ric told his daughter. “Come on, humor your old man.”

Once the girls were both in their beds and the light was out, he kissed each of his daughters and rose to leave.

“Dad?” Josie called out. “Will you tell us one more story about Jo?”

Unable to tell her no, especially after the day they’d all had, Ric lowered himself to the floor between both of their beds.

“Fine,” he conceded. The familiarity of his daughter’s request brought up memories of the bedtime routines they had had only a few years before. “One more story.”

“Your mom-Jo’s brother, your uncle, Luke, passed suddenly one night when I was out of town.”

“That’s not a very happy bedtime story, daddy,” Lizzie cut in.

“Give it a minute,” Ric consoled. “Your uncle passed and I realized that life offers no guarantees… Okay, maybe it is a little morbid. I’ll think of another one.”

“No,” Josie objected quietly. “I want to hear this one.”

Lizzie snuggled deeper into her pillow.

“Alright, where was I… I hadn’t even told Jo yet that I loved her but I knew she was the one for me and I was pretty sure she felt the same way. As soon as I had a chance, I went to buy an engagement ring. It was the easiest decision I’d ever made. ”

“You must’ve known Jo for only a couple months,” Josie whispered, doing the math in her head.

“Yeah,” her father whispered back. He squeezed her blanket clad arm. “But I knew.”

Ric took a moment to regain his composure. “I wanted to propose right away but I thought Jo would appreciate it if I was a little bit romantic. We hadn’t had a lot of romance up until that point, mostly because your mother, Jo, really liked to eat a lot and whenever there was Thai food involved she could go--”

“Dad!” Josie interrupted, laughing. 

“I guess I know where you get it from,” Ric told her laughing. “Anyway, I got up early one morning to make her breakfast in bed. I even made her vegan french toast and got this special vegan butter I know she likes… But the next thing I knew, she was barfing her guts up in the bathroom.”

“Gross,” Lizzie said with feigned disgust.

“I know,” Ric agreed, reaching to touch his other daughter’s arm. “And of course Jo was mortified to throw up in front of me. Apparently, we hadn’t gotten to that stage in our relationship yet.”

“But you were about to propose!” Josie cut in, faking shock.

“See what I mean?” Ric asked, laughing. “Anyway, I walked around all day with this ring in my pocket, feeling like an idiot. I was trying to figure out a quick romantic way to turn this whole thing around and just  _ ask _ her.”

Sighing, Ric continued. “And then, that very evening, I remember standing there in her living room--dumbstruck--waiting for my brain to catch up with the ringing in my ears, when I realized Jo just told me she’s pregnant.” 

“Oh,” Lizzie gasped quietly as Josie pulled her blankets up to her chin.

“Your mom--Jo--used to do this thing where she’d talk a mile a minute when she was nervous. I think she was feeling pretty nervous because she kept going on and on about how she wasn’t even sure if she wanted a baby. So I just cut in and asked her to marry me.”

“That’s so romantic,” Josie whispered. Ric could hear her voice quiver.

“Jo didn’t think so,” he told Josie, squeezing her arm again. “She said it was a pity proposal. That I shouldn’t make a pity proposal to a pregnant ex-witch.”

“But you had the ring!” Lizzie interjected.

“Yeah, so I took it out of my pocket and for the second time since I’d known Jo, she was speechless.”

Ric took his time to gather his composure again. He hadn’t allowed himself to revisit those memories in years. They had always hurt too much. He was starting to realize that sharing them with his girls might help him reconcile the past and honor Jo. 

“I told her I’d bought the ring right after Luke died. That life is short and I didn’t want to waste another minute of it. Then I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me again.”

“She said yes?” Josie asked. 

“She asked if I was sure,” Ric told her, grumpily. “And when I said I was 92% sure--”

“Oh my god dad I hate it when you say that,” Lizzie cut in.

“She said yes,” Ric finished. He didn’t trust himself to speak anymore. The tears were already running down his cheeks. 

“It really sucks what happened,” Josie said quietly through her own tears. 

“Yeah,” Lizzie agreed. “It’s not fair.”

“No,” Ric told them quietly. “But I have both of you and I’m so happy we got to be together.”

“We are, too, daddy,” Josie said quietly.

“You two go to bed now.” Rick stood to leave.

“Will you tell us more stories about Jo later?” Lizzie asked, her voice barely audible.

“Of course sweetheart,” Ric told her before quietly closing the door behind him.


	2. 1x07 - Death Keeps Knocking on My Door

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’ve got at least one more planned after this one! I might keep updating as I watch season 2.

All of the kids had gone back to their rooms and were tucked safely in their beds. Alaric was alone in the cemetery, surrounded by the fairy lights and waning candles the children had placed amongst the graves. 

Sitting alone in front of Jo’s grave, in his mind Alaric played on repeat how it had felt to see his wife again. How glad he was that his girls had had the chance to meet her and talk to her. He knew he’d done Jo a disservice, not telling the girls about their biological mother when they were growing up. He hadn’t wanted to hurt Caroline. 

But he knew the truth in his heart. If he could change the past, he would, in a heartbeat. He still hated Kai so much for what had happened--16 years hadn’t dulled the way he felt about the events of their wedding day and the multiple incidents that led up to it. 

Clasped in his hand were two folded notes, one was old and weathered, and the other fresh and unwrinkled. The older note was written on a slip of paper torn out of Jo’s prescription notebook. It was smeared with a little bit of red lipstick, and even after all those years, it still smelled faintly of her perfume. Alaric knew Jo had written her vows on that piece of paper, but had never been able to bring himself to read them. The thought of it still tore him up inside--reading those words from a woman that was gone, a woman he knew he’d never see alive again.

“I’m sorry for not reading this,” he told his wife’s grave. “I know I should have, after you’d passed, but it hurt too much.”

“I wrote you a letter today,” he continued. “Today is Remembrance Day. We have the kids write letters to their lost loved ones and leave them here in the graveyard.”

Ric concentrated on his breathing, trying not to weep too hard and lose his ability to talk. 

“I’m going to try my best to read the one I wrote for you today… and I then think it’s time I read your vows.”

“Dear Jo,” he said before taking a deep breath, the paper crumpling in his hands. “Seeing you again was equal parts gift and curse. I had forgotten how your eyes would suddenly light up when you were happy. How it felt when I heard you say my name…”

Face wet with tears, Ric had to stop to gather his composure. 

“I had been in love before I met you, each time it was something that I thought would last forever. I remember looking back at those relationships, years later, and wondering where all the feelings had gone. After sixteen years of living this life without you by my side, I can safely say that I will love you until the day that I die. And hopefully long after that.”

“You are still the love of my life and I look forward to the day when we’re reunited, in some other place or some other time.”

Ric sighed, wiped his nose on the cuff of sleeve, then folded the note back up, and placed it before her headstone. He paused a moment to stare at the framed wedding photo he’d left there. “I got so wrapped up in the idea of moving on,” he said to her picture.

“But now I’m figuring out how to accept this,” he continued, having come to a new realization. “I can find happiness in acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean I’ll stop loving you.”

Still holding his wife’s wedding vows in his hand, he paused to stare down at the worn piece of paper, trying to gather the strength to unfold it. 

“I’m sorry it took so long to read this,” he said. “It felt like the next chapter in a book that I never wanted to end.”

After a few moments he opened the note and thought about how the last person to look at it had been Jo.

At the sight of his name written in her familiar loping script, Alaric broke down. 

“I didn’t say I'd be very good at this acceptance thing,” he told her headstone through the tears. 

He took a deep breath and began to read quietly to himself. He swore he could hear Jo’s voice echoing in his ear. 

> _ Alaric Saltzman, _
> 
> _ You are my first thought in the morning. And my last thought before I go to sleep at night.  _
> 
> _ When I turned 40 I thought, well, maybe the whole husband and family thing wasn’t for me. But after dodging an out of control truck in a corn maze with you, I knew we had something special. Even though you tried to dump me after our first date. _
> 
> _ In you, I see a man I can grow old beside, which is part of the reason why I saved your life that one time. You are kind, loyal, and you love your adopted family with a fierceness I had never thought possible. It still blows me away that you love me with that same fierceness.  _
> 
> _ (note to self: this is when I get the ring) Ric, I love you and promise to be beside you as long as we both live, and hopefully forever after. _
> 
> _ (Then we get to make out.) _

Ric laughed. He had forgotten how funny Jo was. How she could change the mood in a room with one well-timed joke. 

“I wish we’d had our chance,” he told her tombstone sadly, before rising to find a bottle of bourbon and his bed, her vows tucked safely in his pocket. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case you were wondering, below are Alaric’s vows from TVD. It never struck me how tragic they were until I wrote them down. 
> 
> "Neither one of us should be here right now. We’ve spent our lives dodging fate. Beating the odds. But, because we did, I got to meet you. The most beautiful, hilarious, and intimidatingly brilliant woman I have ever known. You inspire me, you’ve shown me that happiness is actually something that I can have in my life. And so, I promise, to be with you, and love you, and to dodge fate with you, for the rest of our lives."


	3. 1x## A Burning Wish

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had this random idea today. It takes place at some point during season one after 1x06.

“I can’t believe you dragged us all the way out here for s’mores,” Lizzie groused, leaning over a roasting stick before a rousing campfire. Near her sat Alaric, Josie, and Hope. 

“Well,” Alaric responded. “You guys have been busy with classes and… everything else. I thought it would be a fun way to let loose.”

“Then why is Hope here?” Lizzie groused, turning her marshmallow over the flames.

“Gee, thanks,” Hope cut in, rolling her eyes, as Josie shushed her sister for being rude.

“Hey, stop it, fighting isn’t allowed around the campfire,” Ric told them while working on sharpening his own s’more stick. “Only s’more roasting and campfire stories.”

Everyone quieted down for a bit. The crackling of the fire kept them company while the three girls worked on preparing s’mores. Lizzie preferred burning her marshmallows and eating them still hot, while Josie and Hope enjoyed taking their time constructing perfect little square sandwiches with the graham crackers and chocolate. Alaric seemed content to stare into the flames, poking at them every once in a while with his stick.

“Tell us a scary story, Dad,” Josie added, starting to get uncomfortable with the silence.

Ric smiled. “I don’t want to give you girls nightmares.”

Three sets of eyes rolled around the campfire accompanied by groans and shrieks of outrage.

“Fine, fine,” Ric acquiesced. “I’ll tell you the story of Lady Whitmore.”

“Oh em gee, not that one again,” Lizzie groused.

“Dad, you’ve told us that story like a hundred times,” Josie added.

“Okay, okay,” Ric responded. “Here’s another one… There was a man that used to live in Mystic Falls. He didn’t really have any family or very many friends, but the ones he did have he cherished. He wasn’t very good at what he did but he did have one gift--whenever someone killed him he’d come back from the dead.”

“He was a vampire?” Hope asked.

“No, just a regular, ordinary human, with one paranormal gift. And because of that gift, he’d put himself in danger more than he should. Sometimes his friends would kill him when they were mad, knowing he’d come back to life.”

“Still not very nice,” Josie commented. 

Rick took a moment to poke at the fire with his stick and watch as sparks flew. None of the three girls said another word, waiting for him to continue his story.

“After the man had lived in the town for a few years, people started getting mysteriously murdered. The townspeople were used to hearing about vampire attacks, but these new murders were strange. They were committed against humans, vampires, and werewolves, and not for feeding. The motive wasn’t clear. The man was trying to help his friends figure out who was committing all of the murders.”

Ric paused for dramatic effect. The only other sounds in the forest that night was the burning of the fire and the rustling of the leaves in the trees. 

“One day, the man woke up with blood on his hands and realized that somehow, some way, he had been the one killing all of the folks in his town. It turned out that every time he was killed, he’d be sent to the other side where a part of him was becoming corrupted. Every time he died, he became more and more depraved, until he split into two people. The evil one and the good one.”

“He feared that one day his evil side would take over completely, so he desperately tried to find a way to kill himself and not come back, if only to protect the friends he’d made in Mystic Falls.”

Ric sat back, as if signaling the end of the story.

“So, that’s it? Did he kill himself?” Lizzie asked.

“No, his friends killed him,” Ric explained. 

“That’s depressing,” said Josie. 

“Hey, you put me on the spot. I’ll come more prepared next time.”

The peaceful air around the campfire returned for a bit while new marshmallows began roasting. 

“I have an idea,” Hope spoke up. “It’s something my family did the last time we were all together in New Orleans. It’s called a wish burning ceremony.”

Hope grabbed her backpack and pulled out a notebook and pens. 

“We all make a wish and burn them together, in the hopes that they come true.”

Hope handed out paper and pens and everyone was silent as they wrote. Hope and Lizzie took their time and wrote several sentences. Josie took a while to think and then only wrote a few words. Alaric wrote two wishes, the second of which contained only one word. 

Once everyone was done writing they stood by the fire. 

“Then we just toss them in,” Hope explained as she demonstrated. The other three followed suit. 

_ A few hours later… _

Josie and Lizzie had gone back to their room to do some homework before bed. 

“I did something kind of dumb,” Josie admitted, without looking up from her books. 

“Oh, spill!” Lizzie said excitedly, closing a heavy textbook with a slam.

“Well,” Josie explained, taking a folded piece of paper from her sleeve. “I kind of stole dad’s wishes.”

“Wow, that was very sneaky,” Lizzie responded, moving to sit on Josie’s bed. “Why?”

“He’s been kind of down lately and I wanted to know what his wish was. I thought maybe we could make it come true.”

“Have you read them?” Lizzie asked.

“Yes,” Josie told her, guilt washing over her. “One was obvious, that his girls grow old and have long, full, happy lives.”

“And the other one?”

Josie couldn’t make herself say the words, so she handed her sister the slip of paper. Lizzie opened it and set it down on the bed.

“It just says, ‘Jo’.”

A few minutes later both wishes had been offered up to the crackling fire in their fireplace. 


	4. 1x05 - Malivore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short one. I really loved the dryad episode and the convo she had with Ric. Had to write something quick about it!

_ A freaking dryad _ , Ric mused to himself. Every creature, before this one, that had come for that knife had been destructive and somewhat violent. Now this new being, who seemed smart, kind and even a bit wise, was throwing Ric for a loop.

Ric busied himself by drawing the curtains of the small abandoned house, partly to gather his thoughts and partly to avoid the dryad’s gaze.

“What magic have you employed to search for my Oliver?” the dryad asked. 

“It’s a new spell called Google.”

“You’re mocking me,” the dryad responded, sitting unmoving from her position in the chair.

“Yeah, but just a little bit,” Ric conceded, half smiling. He thought about how tough this year had already been and the strangeness of speaking to a creature that was supposedly part tree. 

“Will you open the window? I would like to feel the breeze,” the creature asked. Her voice remained calm and kind. 

“Until I know the full extent of your power, I’d rather not,” Ric explained, bringing over a chair so he could sit opposite the dryad. 

“You do not need to fear that I will deceive you. Unlike humans, dryads do not lie. We choose not to harm.”

“Well, in the human world, sometimes telling the truth can do more harm than good.”

Ric sat back and stared at the dryad for a moment, thinking of the questions he needed answers to.

“So, who’s this Oliver that Dorain went to go find?”

The dryad explained how she had met Oliver, how they had fallen in love, how he had become a vampire for her, but how their plans had been abruptly changed when she was taken.

“I feel your pain, you have also lost a great love,” the dryad said suddenly. 

“A psychic tree: check,” Ric responded dryly.

“Is your humor helpful in avoiding your pain?” 

“Not really, no.”

The dryad’s eyes widened. “You carry more than one loss.”

“Several,” Ric responded, stoic now, all humor gone. “Including the mother of my children.”

The dryad was still and quiet, as if encouraging Ric to go on.

“But there’s happiness there, too,” he continued. “I see it in their smiles, in their laughter. I still see her sometimes.”

Ric had a wistful smile on his face and the dryad’s expression echoed it. 

A moment later, Dorian walked into the house, and their shared moment ended. 

Later that evening, after Dorian had returned to the school to explain what had happened to the dryad in the field of daffodils, Ric found himself in his car headed toward the same clearing. When he pulled up to the new tree that had just grown there, Ric sat for a moment behind the wheel of the car to just stare up at it. 

The dryad had become a massive weeping willow. It’s tendrils extended from high in the sky and almost grew low enough to touch the grass. Its leaves were fluttering in the late evening breeze.

Ric got out of his car and approached the tree to touch the rough bark. For a moment he wished those he had lost had become trees, rather than rotting corpses lingering under solid granite headstones. 

“Many of the creatures we’ve encountered this year were violent and dangerous. I don’t count you as one of them and I’m sorry that this happened to you.”

Behind Ric, the tree’s tendrils swayed lazily in the breeze. Off in the distance crickets chirped. 

“I don’t talk about Jo nearly as often as I should. The people I spend most of my time these days with never knew her. Including our children.”

Ric paused to catch his breath. 

“Thank you for listening today,” Ric continued, tears sliding down his cheeks. “It was really nice.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have plans for at least two more S2 related chapters. Thanks for reading!


End file.
